PRE-GAME RANT

Well, this one has embarrassment written all over it, again, but the Oilers somehow manage to show up when playing the Hawks.. so I’m cautiously optimistic.

Magnus Paajarvi is back in the lineup. Missing will be Belanger, who is more concerned about his personal career at this point than anything the Oilers could care about right now. And I don’t blame him at all. These are meaningless games, and he’s likely to get bought out… we don’t need him getting injured, and he doesn’t want that either. Ryan Whitney is hurt, and will be replaced by Mark Fistric. Theo Peckham continues to rot on the bench. He will have a new team next year for sure. We will gain nothing from it, aside from more concerns about this team’s handling of players.

No word on starting goalie yet, but I’d imagine that Dubnyk will be back between the pipes.

PRE-GAME RANT

The Oilers face the Blackhawks again tonight for the second time on this grueling road trip. This, thankfully, is the second last game of the road trip. In the first game of this road trip, the Oilers managed to take the Blackhawks to overtime in a game that probably looked closer on the scoresheet than it really was. The Oilers were outworked in this one, much like the rest of the road trip. But the Blackhawks are one hell of a team this year, as we all know. So I don’t feel too bad about that one. The game vs. Dallas, the Oilers were quite good, however (although this also was probably closer than the score led on). I have hopes that they can return to that form tonight.

The Oilers should have a boost tonight. They get 3 players back from injury: Ales Hemsky, Teemu Hartikainen and Shawn Horcoff. Horcoff should provide a bit boost to this team, as even the haters are starting to realize what he brings to the table. He also held an all players meeting with the team to rally the troops. So let’s hope that works. A lot of people who seem to know everything about everything (especially the things they can’t even see) have questioned Horcoff’s leadership. Here are some fine, recent quotes from players in support of Horcoff:

“You see what he brings when he’s out. He’s a guy who does everything so well and he really is an emotional leader for this team with his worth ethic and his compete,” said Sam Gagner. “He competes and battles better than anybody. We’ve missed him.”

“It’s really unfortunate,” said Gagner. “You can’t just look at numbers and jump to a conclusion. The way Horc plays, he lifts everyone on our team. At the end of the day, you have to play the way he plays if you’re going to expect to win in this league. He battles for loose pucks, he wins those battles. He’s in the right position all the time.”

“He wears the C for a reason,” said Ryan Jones. “It’s funny. When I first came here, I didn’t realize how much grief he got and I never really understood it. He’s the first guy in the locker room, the last guy to leave. He’s the hardest working guy on this team.” (this one to me is embarrassing… our fans are the laughing stock of the NHLPA, I’m sure)

I can dig deeper.. these are new quotes.. but really, there is zero indication that any leadership issue here. That said, there are some mighty stupid fans here that do everything from blaming our standings on Devan Dubnyk (since apparently it’s now a goalie’s job to score goals / shoot the puck) to the 4th coach in 5 years, to pretty much everything. My advice is to shut your french fry hole and go back to whatever it is you do when it’s game time. I would currently trade this city’s fans for Nashville fans. At least the ones that are the loudest there support the team. This team is frustrating to watch right now, but throwing guesses out there as to what is the problem and ragging on players is counterproductive and likely to get even worse results. I believe I’m preaching to the choir in these parts, however.

Moving on! Sounds like the lines will be shuffled today, again. Bob Stauffer had a guess at what the lines would be, so I’ve put them below.

PRE-GAME RANT

So the Oilers face the unbeaten-in-regulation-time Chicago Blackhawks. 18 games in, and their mere 3 losses came in overtime. That’s friggen amazing. They have nearly double the points as the Oilers. Their goals differential (goals for minus goals against) is a league leading +23 to Edmonton’s -6. Edmonton’s -6 really isn’t that bad. It’s bad.. but not awfully bad. They haven’t been scoring, but they’ve been keeping teams off the score sheet fairly well. Edmonton is actually 12th in goals against (12th lowest) which is actually quite phenomenal for a team near the bottom of the heap. However, they have 3 more goals for than Minnesota, who sit 30th in goals for. So that definitely is how we got here. Who in their right mind would have said that the Oilers would be a defensively sound team but provide next to no offence? What happened to the run and gun…. or at least, what happened to the gun part? We do a lot of running around.

Last year, the Oilers smoked the Blackhawks not once, but twice. This is the team that Sam Gagner scored his 8 points against. The Oilers also scored 9 against them in another game. The Oilers outscored the Blackhawks 24 – 15 in their season series last year. This is a team they CAN beat. It’s not likely they will though, especially with the Blackhawks being on such a tear. It could be an ugly loss. But hey, they play the games for a reason. I’m hoping we can be the team that ends the Blackhawks’ crazy streak.

Too early yet to figure out what the lines are, and who starts. I’m going to guess that we’ll see similar lines and a start from Dubnyk tonight. I’ll update these later.

PRE-GAME RANT

So the Oilers haven’t been terrible against the Blackhawks this year. In fact, they have 2 wins, and I’m sure many of you (if not all) remember that the Oil demolished the Hawks 9-2 in one of those games (back on November 19). Hopefully the Oilers can win another one tonight and keep this short but good run alive.

Dubnyk will get the start tonight, as part of Tom Renney’s new “win and you’re in” strategy/motivation tactic.

User

Next Oilers Game

Tonight's Games

Support the Foil

[ Amazon.com (UNITED STATES) link ]Putting On The Foil is a participant in the Amazon.ca and .com, Inc. Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.ca and Amazon.com. This site does not earn a profit, and all money earned is used to help lower the cost of hosting fees.

Recent Comments:

- chucker: We have had a few changes since this was written. Some guys at rookie camp really impressed. Yakimov in...

- dawgtoy: If MacT stays busy working the phones, calling the likes of Chi/Phi/Bos/Dal, something is bound to shake...

- Racki: I think the salary looks close enough for Petry and Schultz. If you subtract Klefbom and Nurse plus...

- Racki: Maybe he’ll be in the Hall one day… 😛 Unlikely, but I suppose you never know, for his undying...

- hemmerlady: Agreed about the rafters, Ktown. I was a sobbing mess, myself. Seeing Smytty so emotional, the...

- Ktown: Been awhile since I came past here, but finally saw this post. Agreed 100%, especially the #94 in the...